Wednesday, 14 April 2010

DAY 40!! WHOOP!

OH jeeez!!! I can't believe it's over. It's been emotional guys.

This question of happiness - the science, the philosophy, the politics, and the whole crackpot industry making heaps of cash. 40 blog posts ago I had no fricking idea it was such a steaming pile of unbelievably fascinating baloney.

I have delved through the annals of self-help frivolity, wept in despair at new-age tripe, indulged in hedonism, escapism, and absurdism, fallen in love with elements of Buddhism and meditation, and paddled in the shallows of philosophical thought so mind-bendingly abstract my brain will never be the same again. But that's fine, because pretty soon there'll be a pill for that.

Events last year tore into every part of my life with such speed and INSANELY detrimental consequences. Everything I had held so dear ripped away and squashed beneath 5 pairs of faux-vintage brogues. It not only created the holy mama of tectonic shifts but manifested into the proverbial albatross about my self to fly ad infinitum. BUT, in a wonderfully twisted fashion, it did me a tremendous favour. To experience indescribable joy followed by earth-shattering pain and loss cast light on Those Who Matter, Those Who Don't, and fundamental realisation I was not and am not destined to while away my days in a riddled industry chasing butterflies....

The mad and bad philosopher Nietzsche, when not ranting like a madman and busily chastising Descartes, asked some pretty basic questions about values and truth. 'What really is it in us that wants the truth?' he asked! I don't know!! You tell me... well, partly, he did... We - you, me, and Gretchen - operate in the faith of antithetical values. Or series of opposites. SO truth vs. falsity, good vs. evil AND just throwing it in there, happiness vs. sadness. RIGHT. Nietzsche was generally not au-fait with such dogma and cast aside the polar opposites. Yep, don't worry if it's false or not - that's not the point - instead look for what is life-advancing, life-preserving, species-preserving.

He urged for an enjoyment of the frivolities in life, alongside the basic human determination not to be blind to 'what is really going on'. Above all, we are the creators of our values.

Not entirely sure where I stand on using ol'Niet as a font of advice for happiness... his was not a controversy-free or care-free life. Neither, I'm sure is this the most profound scholarly take on his musing... but I don't care, essentially it's all building up to Your Life and You're in Control. As much as I might DESPAIR at the relentless lists, talk of 'finding' happiness, promises of wealth, health, and perky breasts, happiness as a product shipped out to the commercially saturated masses... if it works for someone who am I to complain.

AND to conclude:

"If the world had any ends, British Honduras would certainly be one of them. It is not on the way from anywhere to anywhere else" Aldous Huxley

Happiness is British Honduras. Ha! Which is ironic, because British Honduras doesn't exist, per se. It's now Belize. Happiness is Belize.

Oh and a big thanks to Aymee Coget for being the first to write back. Kudos to you, Co Jjay. C'mon Gretch, I know you Google yourself...

3 comments:

there's a bit of a lump in my lurcher throat. its all over. and it turned out that the answer is what young dave and i told you before you started this project - happiness is lying on a sofa with your peeps with someone scratching your tummy...

About Me

I have given up 'negative thoughts' for Lent and am embarking on 40 days of pure happiness. This is a thought experiment more than anything else - I want to know if it is true that focusing your energy on positive thinking leads to positive outcomes. I am a skeptic. And should perhaps add it was this or give up Diet Coke and that is not within my capabilities.